225-mile endurance ride

Wow, it’s Tuesday again, and I needed to take a break from yard work and put together a blog for you all today.

Well, week three of my summer vacation has rolled around, and I’ve finally gotten off my butt and jumped into some chores around the ole homestead. That monstrous old yew shrub that’s spread over the front of the house for the past 57 years received a radical transformation into a rather artfully crafted “Japanese bonsai”-looking topiary. I’ve cleaned out the 24 flowerpots and replanted them and several planting beds with over a dozen flats of summer flowers. That pile of yard debris, oops, I meant compost pile, I talked about several weeks ago has been tidied up a bit, and as soon as I get this weeks blog off to Paul, I’ve got 40 bags of “Classic Black” mulch in the driveway ready to spread around the newly planted flower beds and under the new “Japanese bonsai” creation in front of the house.

What happened to the motorcycles and lazy days in the saddle I’ve blogged about over the past couple weeks?

This past Sunday, the iDESMO Ducati club met up for a ride in southern Indiana. Seven of us met at Mann’s Harley-Davidson in Edinburgh, Ind., bright and early Sunday morning. What a sight! Five red Ducatis lined up in front of Milwaukee’s finest. iDESMO’s chapter president, Ryan, had laid out a full day ride all over the twisty state highways of south central Indiana. He even mapped out multiple fuel stops (yes, these Ducatis are thirsty beasts) and most importantly, laid out lunch, ice cream and dinner stops along the way. Hey Ryan, you would fit right in to the MSTA (Motorcycle Sport Touring Association) group quite well, as their motto is “We ride to eat.”

I rolled out of the garage around 8:30 a.m. to head down to Columbus, Ind., to start the ride. After several hours in the saddle, we stopped for lunch at the 58 Café in Kurtz, Ind. A couple more hours brought us to Bruster’s Real Ice Cream in Bloomington for tasty treats. The ride wrapped up in Franklin, Ind., with another opportunity to sate our taste buds with dinner at The Willard Restaurant. By the time I arrived back at my garage around 6 p.m., I was suffering from a pretty good case of monkey butt after 225 miles on a very thin Ducati saddle. For most of the MSTA guys, that’s nothing. Add a zero to that, and now were talking about a respectable mileage number for a typical MSTA’r weekend jaunt. In my world of superbikes, that’s a pretty challenging endurance event.

Anyway, that big pile of “Classic Black” mulch is calling out my name, so I’d better sign off for now. I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg

Great roads, great curves, interesting license plates

Hoosier Hospitality, Amber Waves of Grain, The Crossroads of America, Back Home Again and Wander Indiana are but a few of the more memorable Indiana license plate mottos that have shown up over the years from the Indiana Bureau of Vehicles.

From 1905 to 1912, the Indiana General Assembly charged $1 to register a vehicle and gave each automobile owner a 2-inch diameter brass or aluminum circular seal with a number printed on it. This was hung from the vehicle’s dashboard. The owner was allowed to make an identifying placard out of leather, tin, wood or other materials to be displayed on the rear of the vehicle.

Ray Harroun drove the bright yellow Marmon “Wasp” to victory and into racing immortality in the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911. This first automotive racing event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway predated the first issuance of automotive license plates in Indiana by two years.

In 1913, Indiana issued its first license plate. The plate measured a generous 4.5″ x 14.5″ and is the only Indiana plate to have a porcelain finish on a heavy metal base. Now that’s an interesting fact to remember!

Over the decades, license plates have generally served a rather mundane identification role on automobiles, offering little to no style to their owners. The 1980s saw the beginnings of a bit of design with interesting mottos starting to show up on what had been a dull utilitarian piece of tin on the back of our four-wheeled pride and joys.

If a little style is good, then more has got to be better! In recent years, the Indiana Bureau of Vehicles has discovered just how much we motorists enjoy personalizing not just our four-wheeled vehicles but also our motorcycles.  Checking out the Indiana BMV’s Web site, I counted over 70 different specialty license plates, many of which are available for both cars and motorcycles. There are plates to tout 32 different universities, eight military specialties, 32 various organizations in addition to the two standard-issue plates. This would have definitely complicated the old vacation travel game of identifying state license plates many years ago.

If you checked out my garage lately, you’d find a whole lineup of sport motorcycles, each proudly displaying the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum license plate that benefits the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation. The foundation was incorporated as a not-for-profit Indiana corporation in 1957 and is operated for educational initiatives, charitable purposes and the preservation of the most diversified auto and racing memorabilia collection in the world.

If you’d like to help support the ongoing preservation of automotive history like Ray Harroun’s Marmon “Wasp” and many others like it, contact Greta Allen at the Museum at (317) 492-6779 to reserve your Hall of Fame Museum license plate, or check out this link for more information: IMS Hall of Fame Museum License Plate

Blessed with another glorious weekend of perfect weather, I once again spent part of Saturday and most of Sunday wandering the many twisting state highways and back roads of southern Indiana on one of my sport bikes, proudly displaying my support of the Hall of Fame Museum.

I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg

INDY DESMO road trip

Last weekend, INDY DESMO Owners Club members ventured to the Ropkey Armor Museum in Crawfordsville, Ind., for their first event of the 2009 year. The group included 15 members of INDY DESMO who made the trip and got to see an array of tanks and armory from several time periods and were given a personal tour of the museum by none other than Fred Ropkey himself. The tanks have been featured in movies, historical biographies and numerous cameos on film throughout the world. Mr. Ropkey even had on hand the very rare X-14-B hover plane that NASA astronauts piloted, including Neil Armstrong.

Mr. Ropkey stated that he just loved all the Ducati bikes and was quite thrilled to see them all and had not had the chance to experience the brand for himself. Being an avid rider of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, he was very impressed by the technology and couldn’t resist stating how beautiful the bikes appeared right before his eyes. Thanks go out to all those involved with the ride, and we look forward to many more in the coming months for the club. More information about the Ropkey Armor Museum can be found at www.ropkeyarmormuseum.com

OK, let’s play Where’s Waldo! Can you find me in the photo above?

Nope, I’m not there!

I started off Sunday morning meeting up with a couple MSTA (Motorcycle Sport Touring Association) members at Don & Donna’s for breakfast on the square in Franklin, Ind. The plan was to ride a little bit of the Brown County twisty road routes then head north to meet up with the INDY DESMO group for the Ropkey Armor Museum tour. Well, the “short” Brown County jaunt turned into a 200-mile ride, complete with several stops for lunch and ice cream. Yup, it’s all about the tasty treats. But best of all, the new Ducati in my stable has reached that magic 600-mile point. After my friends at Ducati Indianapolis complete the 600-mile initial service and inspections, I’ll be able to really experience the power of the new 1098 R Bayliss LE.

With another weekend of motorcycle adventures under the belt, it’s time to get back to the grind, and I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg

Bring on the “leafers”

This time of year in central Indiana can be full of interesting surprises from Mother Nature. Those of you who experienced the inaugural running of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP back in September can certainly vouch for that! Fortunately, this past weekend was a glorious example of how great the combination of clear, warm, sunny days can be with the onset of the fall symphony of colors across the Hoosier state.

After two solid weeks of business travel with all the associated joys of airports, hotels and alien cities, I ended up with a long weekend that was blessed with unbelievable weather for this time of the year. One thing I have learned over all the years of travel is the humor you can find wherever you may be stuck. I hope this pilot figured out where he was going!

I decided to forgo all the fall chores around the homestead and ended up spending most of all three days exploring the twisty routes around central and southern Indiana. The onset of the traditional fall foliage has also brought out hordes of “leafers” out for leisurely drives to gawk at the colors of the fall season.

This past Sunday, Oct. 12 also marked the monthly meeting of the HSTA (Honda Sport Touring Association). Our meeting destination this month was the 58 Café in Kurtz, Ind. Being only four blocks long and three blocks wide, you would miss it if you blinked twice during a spirited blast across IN SR 58. Well, based on previous blogs about the HSTA group, you should remember that indulging in culinary delights is one of our main mission statements. The breaded tenderloins and homemade pies definitely put the town of Kurtz and the 58 Café high on the HSTA destination list.

We’ll have to ask fellow HSTA’er Mike Harrell if the coconut cream pie at the 58 Café even comes close to the brownie fudge caramel ice cream delight at the South Bend Chocolate Company on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis.

Fortunately, the monthly meeting agenda items were handled expeditiously, giving all the attendees plenty of time to enjoy a hardy lunch prior to round two of one of our favorite fall pastimes; dodging the meandering stream of fall “leafers.”

My trip back up to Indy also included one of the ultimate surprises for a sport bike rider; a 14-mile long, curvy ribbon of freshly laid pavement across IN SR 45 between Unionville and Beanblossom, Ind. What better experience could one ask for to wrap up a glorious fall weekend in central Indiana.

I’ll see you all in a couple weeks at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com.

Greg

Gathering Before the Green Flag

Just in case you didn’t know, racing in Indiana is serious business! We Hoosiers take our racing seriously, and our passion for motorsports is historic. This was evident the weekend of Jan. 19-20, 2008 as the Indiana State Museum in the White River State Park located in Indianapolis opened its doors to the Indiana racing community to help kick off the 2008 racing season.

The “Racing in Indiana: Gathering Before the Green Flag” was a great opportunity to bring all forms of racing in Indiana together for the local community to share and experience.

Here’s an excerpt from the Indiana State Museum’s press release: (click here to see it all)

Hosted by Mike King, chief announcer for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, “Gathering Before the Green Flag” invites fans to sit behind the wheel of a variety of racing vehicles, from IndyCars to go-karts and dragsters, and see other great racing vehicles such as motorcycles, boats and vintage race cars. They’ll meet racing insiders Derek Daly, Donald Davidson and some of their favorite drivers, and be able to take part in a rare symposium of experts.

“It’s every race fan’s dream and an opportunity for newcomers to see what racing is all about,” said Mike King of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. “Hoosiers are the greatest racing fans in the world, so holding this event at the Indiana State Museum is very fitting, especially since the IMAX^® is here.”

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway brings a century of racing history to the Hoosier experience. It was only fitting for the IMS exhibit to highlight the upcoming celebration of this historic milestone with the running of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP in September 2008. Since this time of the year in central Indiana is not ideal riding weather, my Honda CBR1000RR Repsol was enlisted out of winter hibernation for show duty in the museum gallery for the weekend.

Wow, for a couple days, I was able to share a little bit of my experience with the local community for the “Racing in Indiana: Gathering Before the Green Flag” celebration of speed.

See you all next week on redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg